Building a Habit in Construction Management

Eric
Talley knew it was possible. After all, classmate Nicole Rawlins did it last
spring.

But when friends started suggesting his
score on the American Institute of Constructors’ (AIC) national certification
exam – 278 out of a possible 300 – could be the highest in the nation, he
shrugged it off.

“I thought surely somebody did better,” he
said.

They didn’t. For the second time in a row,
a student in the University of Houston’s Construction Management Department had
earned the highest score in the nation on the rigorous exam.

“I’m challenging our students,” said Neil
Eldin, the department chairman. “I want one of our students to be at the top.
Keep it up.”

Eldin incorporates a review into the
capstone course he teaches during the final year of the program. Several years
ago, noticing that students seemed unaware of some elements covered on the
test, he asked faculty to make sure
those elements were covered in their classes.

It is beginning to pay off, he said, as is
a conscious effort to “raise the bar” by requiring students to have a 2.5 grade
point average before entering the program, as well as to graduate, up from the
previous 2.0 requirement.

Nicole
Rawlins, who graduated with a construction management degree in December, began
the streak last spring, when she became the first UH student to earn the
nation’s top score.

Many accredited construction management
programs require students to take the 8-hour AIC certification exam, but Eldin
said the UH program, part of the College of Technology, is the only one to
require it for graduation. Nationally, the passing rate is about 50 percent.

That was true of UH students, too, Eldin
said, although most passed on the second attempt. Last fall, he said 47 percent of students
nationally passed; 67 percent of UH students passed. His goal is 80 percent.

Construction management covers elements of
civil engineering, including statics, strength of materials and design of
concrete and steel structures, along with business, including accounting,
marketing and finance, and construction science, including classes in
estimating, scheduling, safety and construction law.

Three years ago, UH became the first
program in the nation to offer a specialization in process and industrial
construction management, geared toward the oil and gas industry. It prepares students
to work for companies building industrial facilities and petrochemical plants such
as those going up along the Gulf Coast to take advantage of the abundant
natural gas and natural gas liquids produced by the boom in shale drilling.

Other students focus on commercial
construction that adds to Houston’s critical assets, such as medical facilities
and premier hotels.

There is strong demand for both in Houston’s healthy
construction industry, with building permits at their highest level since 2008
and more than $15 billion in chemical plant expansions planned.

Talley, who will graduate in May 2014, is
on the industrial track, a program he now says is a perfect fit. But he took a
circuitous route to get there.

“The first time I went to college, I had
no idea what I wanted to do,” he said.

A native of Montgomery, just north of
Houston, he attended Mississippi State University for two years and then worked
for a few years before moving back to the Houston area. He took community
college classes to become certified as an electrician and, while working for a
local firm, learned about the construction management degree.

The UH program offers classes in the
evening, which made it work for Talley.

“There’s no way I could have done it if
it had been a more traditional program, with classes in the day,” he said,
because he continued to work fulltime, first as an electrician and now as a
project coordinator for Pfeiffer & Son, a commercial and industrial
electrical contractor in La Porte.

He took the certification test seriously,
studying for six weeks before the test in the hope that he wouldn’t have to
retake it in the spring. He said it covers every aspect of construction and the
management of construction projects: engineering, ethics, scheduling, cost
controls and estimating.

And when it was over, he knew he had done
well. “But I never thought I had the highest score.”

Talley credits the University’s location –
“We’re in Houston. There’s a lot of industrial construction here.” – with
making available instructors with a wealth of experience. That’s a huge asset
for students, he said.

Although he’s not yet sure what he will do
once he graduates, he knows his degree, and his top score on the certification
test, will create opportunities.

Now that
he has made it twice in a row for UH, he figures the pressure is on for next
time.